I used a gel polish by Y&S. I bought a set of four Y&S polishes on a whim, because they were not expensive. I paid £8.99 for all four bottles, and that included delivery for me as I am an Amazon Prime customer.

The glitter is one from an NYK1 set. I applied them after I’d cured and cleansed the gel, by applying over a clear polish. I used NYC Grand Central Station, which is supposed to be a fast-drying top coat, but I find it dries fairly slowly, and so is perfect in this application.

I then used a couple of coats of Gelous, which is supposedly a base coat, but which covers glitters well. I finished off with two coats of my favourite top coat, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri.

For this manicure I’ve used:

Gel base coast: Red Carpet Manicure Structure

Gel polish: Three coats of colour 019 from the Y&S gel polish set #003

Gel top coat: Red Carpet Manicure Brilliance

Glitter nails: one coat of NYC Grand Central Station, plus glitter from NYK1, then two coats of Gelous Advanced Nail Gel Coat and two coats of Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

I love the Red Carpet Manicure gel polishes – they paint on beautifully and have lasted on me without any lifting or splitting. This particular polish came with the Pro Starter Kit, along with an LED lamp, base coat, top coat, and other nail preparation items. I love the lamp because it plugs straight into a USB port, and seeing as I do my nails at my office desk (I work from home), it eliminates the need for an ungainly expedition under the desk to find a plug socket.

Red Carpet Manicure Red Carpet Reddy

There’s not much else to say about this colour. It’s red; a classic, medium red. Just as good for everyday wear or for a classy occasion.

All manicure images are copyright to Kerruticles unless otherwise mentioned.Products shown in this post were sent to me for review. All views expressed in this post are my own, honest and unbiased opinions.

It’s been a while since I’ve done much nail art. My nails have only really had plain nail polish on them for a lot of the time over the past year or so, as I’ve been so busy with work and my volunteering commitments.

So, this stamping marble using some neon brights from the Morgan Taylor Selfie collection was quite a welcome change.

Neon brights stamping marble smoosh

I’m a little sad that my camera hasn’t done well with these colours. They’re bright neons and my camera just hasn’t done justice to this manicure. It looked awesome in the flesh; on the screen, not so much.

Neon brights stamping marble smoosh

I used five of the six polishes in the Morgan Tayor Selfie collection. I only have five of them, as I’m missing Pretty As A Pink-ture. I am often amazed how well polish manufacturers put collections togehter. It’s when you use all (or nearly all) of the colours in a collection that you realise how well they complement each other.

I put drops of polish onto a mat, then picked up the colour with a stamper, dragging it a little to swirl the colours, and stamped the colour onto my nails. The technique is a fun and quick way to crate some nail art. It’s variously called a smoosh or a stamping marble.

Neon brights stamping marble smoosh

As I said, my camera doesn’t pick up neon very well, so I photographed my hand in front of a gel nails LED light, which goes some way to showing off the brightness of these colours.

Neon brights stamping marble under LED light

For this manicure I’ve used:

Colours: all from Morgan Taylor: All About The Pout, Me, Myself-ie, And I, Woke Up This Way, Best Face Forward, No Filter Needed

Top coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

All manicure images are copyright to Kerruticles unless otherwise mentioned.
The Morgan Taylor polishes shown in this post were sent to me for review. All views expressed in this post are my own, honest and unbiased opinions.

It’s from the Selfie collection, a collection of six fun, bright summer shades.

Best Face Forward is alone in the collection as the only flakie polish. It’s a purple – that sometimes looks inky blue – with cyan blue and pinky-purple flakies in it.

I couldn’t quite capture the sparkle of the flakies in the photo, and in truth, they are best visible in fluorescent light (or perhaps sunlight – but that’s now gone in my part of the UK!)

Morgan Taylor Best Face Forward

There’s a bit of tip wear visible, but that’s because this is day four of wearing this polish, and I’ve done some hard core cleaning in these nails over that time! Morgan Taylor polishes are probably my favourite for wear length. They rarely chip and they last ages on me.

Morgan Taylor Best Face Forward

My nails are a different shape these days. I broke the middle nail while I was away on holiday, and I decided to shorten them all to match. I wasn’t entirely ready to return to my squared shape, and they’re not long enough to be almond again, so I’ve compromised with rounded nails. I’m not overly happy with this shape on me. But they’ll grow in no time, so I shall just have to put up with it for a bit. I have to say, I forgot how easy it was to type without excessively long nails. People still think my current nails are long, but they feel so short to me.

Here’s a journey through my nail shape in Morgan Taylor polishes. Which shape do you prefer?

I always like the behind the scenes videos that Morgan Taylor puts together – here’s the one for the Selfie advert.

You can buy Morgan Taylor nail polishes in the UK in Sally’s stores – or online at www.sallyexpress.com.

For this manicure I’ve used:

Colour: two coats of Morgan Taylor Best Face Forward

Top coat: Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

All manicure images are copyright to Kerruticles unless otherwise mentioned.
Morgan Taylor Best Face Forward was sent to me for review. All views expressed in this post are my own, honest and unbiased opinions.

This is my first time using Red Carpet Manicure and I loved the polish and everything about the system. Red Carpet Manicure was apparently the first to launch an at-home gel manicure system.

Beach Queen is from the Fiji Fever collection, launched for summer 2017. It is a collection of neon polishes – always perfect for summer.

Red Carpet Manicure Beach Queen

Beach Queen is described as a purple, but seems more like a pink to me. It’s a bright fuchsia colour. There is a pink in the Fiji Fever collection – Shake Your Beach Bum – which is a bit lighter than this. But to me, Beach Queen is definitely a bright pink.

The gel polish applied brilliantly. I’m used to gels being quite thick, but these are the thinnest gels I’ve used. And I just loved how they went on. I can see Red Carpet Manicure becoming my favourite gel brand.

The instructions recommend two coats over white – to bring out the neon at its best – but I couldn’t find my white polish at the time, so I painted three coats instead.

Red Carpet Manicure Beach Queen

My camera can’t easily pick up the brightness of the polish, and certainly can’t manage to show the neon. But I guarantee you it glows.

Now, just one word of caution with gels. I’m qualified to use gels, so have been trained and I understand the issues and problems that there can be with them. But, that doesn’t stop me recommending an at-home system, and this one is brilliant. But, I would just recommend that you:

thoroughly shake the polish before use

are very careful not to get any gel polish on your skin – if you do, clean it off immediately

prep the nail well before applying the polish, removing all traces of cuticle

only apply very thin layers

follow the manufacturer’s instructions closely

use only the lamp made for the system

The two biggest problems with gels, which can cause allergic reactions further down the line – and sometimes, tragically, the inability to wear any type of nail polish – are getting gel on the skin, and not curing it properly. Not curing it properly is due to not using the right lamp. I would always recommend using the manufacturer’s lamp. So it’s sensible to stick to just one or two brands of gel. Red Carpet Manicure sell a great starter pack – Gel Polish Pro Kit – that includes an LED lamp, all the prep materials, base coat, top coat, a red polish, cleanser and even a cuticle oil for £89.95 that I would thoroughly recommend.

For this manicure I’ve used:

Base coat: Red Carpet Manicure Structure

Colour: three coats of Red Carpet Manicure Beach Queen

Top Coat: Red Carpet Manicure Brilliance

All manicure images are copyright to Kerruticles unless otherwise mentioned.Products shown in this post were sent to me for review. All views expressed in this post are my own, honest and unbiased opinions.

About me

I'm Claire Kerr and I'm a UK nails blogger. I've only been addicted to nail polish since 2012. Some kind of mid-life crisis turned me from a tomboy into a girly girl!

I had been posting pics of my manicures to Facebook, really as a way of documenting them for myself, but I was filling up my timeline with the photos and most of my friends weren't interested. So I started this blog instead!